


Interpretation

by Vae



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-02
Updated: 2007-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-04 07:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/708062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vae/pseuds/Vae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tosh tries to identify a strange language</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interpretation

**Author's Note:**

> written for [](http://10-cliche-fics.livejournal.com/profile)[**10_cliche_fics**](http://10-cliche-fics.livejournal.com/) for the prompt "Never judge a book by its cover", and my first posted attempt at a Torchwood fanfic. No spoilers. Claim table [here](http://woodsong-1978.livejournal.com/61195.html). Many thanks to [](http://fan-elune.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://fan-elune.livejournal.com/)**fan_elune** for the beta-read.

"Well?" Jack asked impatiently, resting one hand on the edge of the desk as he leaned in for another look at the artefact. "What is it?"

Tosh glanced up at him, pulling off her glasses and folding them absent-mindedly into a pocket. It was a fair bet that within five minutes, she'd have forgotten where she'd put them. "I think it's a book."

"A book." He tilted his head, studying it more closely. "Well, I guess it's got certain book-like qualities. Like the fact that it's got a hard cover, it's book-sized and appears to have paper contents. I _know_ it's a book, Tosh. Tell me what's _in_ it."

"Words?" she offered helplessly. "I can't work it out, Jack. It won't open, and the symbols on the cover don't seem to correlate to any of the languages we have on record." She ran one finger lightly over the surface. The symbols weren't simply printed on the cover. They weren't embossed, they weren't raised, they weren't carved, but there was some kind of texturing applied to them. Just not any kind of texturing that could be interpreted by a human touch.

Jack pushed away from Tosh's desk, took a few paces away, and then turned to face her, arms folded across his chest. "Keep trying. This could be important."

"Or it could be complete gibberish!"

"Gibberish can be important." Jack grinned at her frustrated expression, and headed back up the stairs to his office.

***

He could see Tosh working through the windows of his office. He didn't even need to move away from his desk, simply swivel his chair to a different angle to see her rather than Owen playing games or Gwen working earnestly through a stack of photographs. One day he'd get Ianto or Tosh to explain to her about their identity archive and the advanced facial recognition software, but until then, it was just fun to watch her applying the good old police methodology.

It was fascinating watching Tosh work. Her brow furrowed with concentration when she was frustrated, but her whole face lit up when she came up with a new theory or made a breakthrough. He could even see her screen flicker through the lines of code when she applied a new algorithm to the traces of language she'd managed to extract from the cover.

"Still not managed to open it?"

Jack looked back over his shoulder to see Ianto standing behind him holding a mug of coffee in one hand, and a stack of papers in the other. His administrator was wearing a dark grey suit and a knowing smirk.

"No, she's still working on the cover. Trying to make sense of the language." He reached out to take the coffee, sighing as the papers were laid on his desk as well. "More autographs? Are you selling these on eBay to raise funds?"

"Absolutely, sir," Ianto agreed, smirk vanishing behind his usual impassive mask. "Of course, I've got to keep the supply limited, in order to keep the prices up. How else would I pay Owen's expense claims?"

"How else, indeed?" Jack grinned, took a sip of coffee, spat it back into his mug, and stopped grinning, sending Ianto a pained look instead. "Decaf, Ianto? What did I do to deserve decaf?"

Ianto's smirk returned. "More like what you didn't do, sir."

"Like?" Jack yelled, leaning back in his chair.

"Like tell Tosh that the key to that book is in your coat pocket. And that if she looks closely at the back, she'll see the words 'Made in Taiwan'. And that the language on the cover is Tolkien's Elvish, Quenya to be precise, which has never made sense to anyone in any known galaxy – and that the pages inside are blank."


End file.
